Syria Crisis Digest: June 9 - June 15

Each week, HuffPost World will provide the top stories out of Syria and a recap of events in the country's year-long uprising, as President Bashar Assad’s regime continues its bloody crackdown.

June 9 - June 15 In Review

Syrian troops and opposition forces clashed in the streets of Damascus on Monday, in the worst violence the capital has seen since the start of the uprising. Shelling in the southern city of Daraa left 17 people dead that day.

Syria's main opposition group picked Abdulbaset Sieda, a secular Kurd, as its new leader.

United Nations peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters the conflict in Syria has turned into a civil war.

In a new report, Amnesty International accused Syrian troops of war crimes, claiming armed forces and militias dragged men from their homes, executed them and burned their bodies as their families watched.

The U.N. put Syria on a list of 52 governments and armed groups that recruit, kill or sexually attack children in armed conflicts.

U.N. monitors entered the embattled town of Haffa on Thursday. A U.N. monitor team had earlier been attacked when it tried to enter the site, raising suspicions a new massacre had taken place in the village.

A van filled with explosives detonated in a suburb of Damascus on Thursday. It was unclear if the suicide bomber was targeting a Shiite shrine in the neighborhood or a nearby police station.

The world spent too long looking at the Syrian conflict through the prism of the other Arab uprisings. The regime was just another domino waiting to fall and that is how the world saw the crisis, in black and white. But as the conflict became more complex it dissolved into shades of grey. There was still the army and the protesters but there were new elements too.

UNSMIS -- YouTube Channel
The U.N. monitor mission in Syria now has a YouTube channel to which it uploads videos from its visits across the country.

Associated Press -- Aftermath Of Attack On Deir Al-Zour
This video purports to show the aftermath of shelling in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour. The Associated Press reported that troops pelted the city with mortars on Tuesday.